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The simple question is this: If you know "gay" as a pejorative is offensive and insulting to people, and if you know that using it creates an atmosphere in which gay kids are bombarded with the message that gay=bad/wrong/negative (and other kids learn the message from you that it's okay to pick on gay people), then why would you choose to use it that way?
Yes you have the freedom to do it, but why would you?
And I'll present this to you yet another way:
Lets say the word "f - a -g" has more than one meaning .. which it does .. would you condone it's use to target a certain group of people exclusively?
It's not up to me to dictate what would be acceptable or not, and for me to apply exclusivity to a word that is clearly nonexclusive would be totally out of the question.
If teenagers want to use a word to mean one thing, and the word itself is the same word that a certain community is using to describe itself with a whole different meaning, then I don't know what to tell you.
The word means more than what the homosexual community wants it to mean .. and by that, it's not the word itself or it's meanings that has the problem .. it's the community trying to come to terms with the word, that I see as being the problem.
It wasn't that way before homosexuals hijacked the word "gay" for their own identity was it? Clue: no, it wasn't.
Some special interest groups create reasons to be offended. This is but one example. The use of the "N" word by blacks but outraged when used by non-blacks is but another example.
I'm offended that I cannot use the word "gay" without being labeled a bigot. How dare homosexuals lay their claim on that word! Censorship I tell you.
I tried to rep you, but have to spread more around.
I am so sick of special interest groups and their crying like babies every time they are offended. I will use the word gay whenever and however i want - if someone does not like it, don't listen.
It's just a word. Words can have more than one meaning...
True. But you have to ask yourself what the predominant understanding is.
In this case, "gay" meaning "stupid" developed after "gay" meaning "homosexual"; while there mightn't be a direct relationship between the two definitions the former is common enough to make me wary of using it in the latter sense.
]It wasn't that way before homosexuals hijacked the word "gay" for their own identity was it? Clue: no, it wasn't.[/b]
Some special interest groups create reasons to be offended. This is but one example. The use of the "N" word by blacks but outraged when used by non-blacks is but another example.
I'm offended that I cannot use the word "gay" without being labeled a bigot. How dare homosexuals lay their claim on that word! Censorship I tell you.
Nobody "hijacked" anything; language usually evolves over time in a more organic manner. It takes time for a specific definition to take hold in public consciousness.
Nobody "hijacked" anything; language usually evolves over time in a more organic manner. It takes time for a specific definition to take hold in public consciousness.
The trouble is, that more often than not, over time, the word "gay" has been associated with more bad things than good ..
Nobody "hijacked" anything; language usually evolves over time in a more organic manner. It takes time for a specific definition to take hold in public consciousness.
Words can mean different things to different people. If someone does not like a word another is using, don't listen. Get over it!
A group of people cannot label a words as bad because they feel it offends them and then expect people to feel bad using that word. Period.
So??? Doesn't mean it is always, 100 percent bad. That is just 'gay.' And it has also been a great day for me with some good news and I am in a 'gay' mood.
So??? Doesn't mean it is always, 100 percent bad. That is just 'gay.' And it has also been a great day for me with some good news and I am in a 'gay' mood.
Would you believe that I can't say the word (sounds like beer but with a qu....)?
Doesn't it mean strange?
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